[Flotsam]

It also recalled scenes I had read about from people that visited the USSR and other eastern-bloc countries before the downfall of the commie system.

This has occurred to me also. Years ago, I would hear the stories of people who traveled to the Soviet Union, who had taken a seemingly innocuous picture out the window of a train only to be set upon by the secret police, subjected to questioning and have their film confiscated. Back then it seemed so foreign and oppressive.